Abolition of the African Slave Trade--Granville
Sharpe--Wilberforce--Pitt--Stephen--Macaulay--Brougham.
In tracing the foreign policy of Pitt, we have been led beyond the
period of the great philanthropic achievement of 1806-7--the Abolition
of the African Slave Trade. I shall not trace the origin and growth of
this traffic, nor describe its horrors, nor detail the measures, in and
out of Parliament, which led to its legal prohibition. They are familiar
to those who will be likely to read this chapter.
THOMAS CLARKSON was the father of the movement for the abolition of the
slave trade, and, consequently, for the destruction of negro slavery
itself, of which it is but an incident. The circumstances which turned
his attention to it are novel. In 1785, he was a senior bachelor of arts
of St. John's College, Cambridge. The vice chancellor, impressed with
the iniquity of the slave trade, announced to the seniors as a subject
for a Latin dissertation, (I translate it,) "Is it right to make slaves
of others against their will?" He little thought of the far-reaching
consequences of this proposal. Young Clarkson, having secured the Latin
prize the previous year, was anxious to obtain it again. He went to
London, and procured all the books relating to the subject he could
find. His sensitive mind was shocked beyond measure at the horrors of
"the middle passage," which they disclosed. Sleep often left his pillow,
while digesting the materials for his essay; and during its preparation
he resolved to devote his life to the destruction of so appalling an
evil. Noble resolution! Little did the young philanthropist then imagine
that he should live, not only to see this trade abolished by Great
Britain, and declared piracy by all Christian Powers, but to witness the
abolition of slavery itself in those islands of the West, around which
his warm sympathies clustered; that he should see the humanity of the
world roused in arms to put down the crime of chattelizing mankind; and
should himself, after a lapse of fifty-five years, preside, "the
observed of all observers," in the metropolis of England, at a large
Convention assembled from the four quarters of the globe, to devise
means to achieve a final victory in this war upon the "wild and guilty
phantasy, that man can hold property in man." But, I anticipate.
Clarkson finished his essay, won the prize, and, true to his vow,
commenced, friendless and without resources, the work of abolition. He
translated and enlarged his essay, and committing it to press, started
on a pilgrimage through the kingdom, in search of facts to illustrate
the character of the traffic, and friends to aid him in its destruction.
A singular instance of his patient zeal may be stated. He was anxious to
ascertain whether slaves were _kidnapped_ by the traders in the interior
of Africa. He was told by a gentleman, that about a year before, he had
conversed with a common sailor, who had made several excursions up the
African rivers, in pursuit of slaves, and presumed he could inform him
on this subject. He knew not the sailor's name, nor his residence, nor
where he sailed from, and could only say, that when he saw him he
belonged on board some man-of-war in ordinary. Clarkson started on the
forlorn hope of finding this sailor. He successively visited Deptford,
Woolwich, Chatham, Sheerness, Portsmouth, and Plymouth--boarding, during
the tour, which occupied several weeks, 317 ships, and examining several
thousand persons. I give the result in his own words: "At length, I
arrived at the place of my last hope, (Plymouth.) On my first day's
expedition I boarded forty vessels, but found no one who had been on the
coast of Africa in the slave trade. One or two had been there in King's
ships, but they had never been on shore. Things wore now drawing to a
close; and my heart began to beat. I was restless and uneasy during the
night. The next morning I felt agitated between the alternate pressure
of hope and fear; and in this state I entered my boat. The fifty-seventh
vessel I boarded was the Melampus frigate. One person belonging to it,
on examining him in the captain's cabin, said he had been two voyages to
Africa; and I had not long conversed with him before I found, to my
inexpressible joy, that he was the man." This long-sought witness
confirmed his suspicions in regard to kidnapping. In 1786, Clarkson
published a tract, embodying a summary of the various information he had
obtained, and in June 1787, organized, in London, the first committee
for the abolition of the slave trade, and was appointed its secretary
and agent. When visiting this patriarch of humanity, at Playford Hall,
in 1840, he showed me the records of this committee. There were the
original entries, in his own handwriting, made more than fifty-three
years before; and he was alive to read them to me, accompanied by many
lively anecdotes of the early friends whose names and deeds were there
recorded. In 1787, he had his first interview with Mr. Wilberforce, and
found a ready access to the heart of that great and good man. In 1788,
he published his important work, "The Impolicy of the Slave Trade." The
next year he visited France, to enlist the friends of liberty in that
country in favor of his scheme. He had interviews with Mirabeau, Neckar,
and others. He was denounced as a spy, and came near being seized. Owing
to the revolutionary storm then rising over the kingdom, he accomplished
little by this tour, except to present copies of his printed works to
the King, and obtain promises from Mirabeau and Neckar to call public
attention to the subject when the agitations of the period had subsided.
These promises were soon engulfed in the earthquake which shook, not
only France, but Europe to its center.
Previous to 1788, such progress had been made in public sentiment and
feeling in England, through the indefatigable labors of Clarkson and the
committee he had founded, that it was determined to bring the subject of
Abolition before Parliament. Mr. Wilberforce was selected to open the
question; but, owing to his ill health, Mr. Pitt, on the 9th of May,
1788, moved that the House do resolve to take into consideration the
state of the slave trade early in the next session. In 1790, Wilberforce
introduced a proposition for the total abolition of the traffic, and
sustained it with eminent ability, Pitt, Fox, and Burke giving him their
support. The West India interest took fire, insisting that the trade was
sanctioned by the Bible, and its abolition would ruin the commerce of
London, Bristol, Liverpool, and other large marts. The session of 1792
saw the tables of both Houses loaded with influential petitions.
Wilberforce led off, as usual, followed closely by Fox and Pitt. Dundas,
"the right hand of Pitt," opposed the measure, and was scathed by Fox in
reply. In the Lords, the Duke of Clarence denounced Wilberforce as a
"meddling fanatic," who ought to be expelled from Parliament. But the
object of his censure lived to see his royal traducer, as King William
IV, sign a bill appropriating L20,000,000 for the abolition of slavery
in the West India islands! Omitting details, suffice it to say, that the
friends of Abolition pressed its consideration upon the public attention
from year to year, with increasing fervor, Clarkson being the out-door
manager, and Wilberforce the Parliamentary, (always sustained by Pitt
and Fox,) till, on the downfall of Pitt, and the coming in of a liberal
administration, with Fox for its leader, in 1806, a condemnatory vote
was obtained, which, in the next year, was followed by the total
abolition of the trade.
I will not stop to state why this measure, since adopted from time to
time by all Christian nations, has not fulfilled the expectations of its
friends; nor why the number of victims of the slave trade in our day is
double that of the time when Clarkson commenced his labors. In a word,
so long as the existence of slavery makes a demand for fresh "cargoes of
human agony," so long wretches will be found to brave heaven, earth, and
hell, to furnish the supply. But the failure to attain complete success
should not lessen our admiration of those early toils, which, like an
oasis in the wide desert of human selfishness, refresh the eye of all
who recognize the common brotherhood of man.
Mr. Clarkson was greatly aided in his labors by GRANVILLE SHARPE. This
singular person had already become known for his advocacy of the rights
of negro slaves when Clarkson commenced his work. He was born of humble
parents, in 1735. He had a mind peculiarly fond of probing everything to
the bottom. While an apprentice, a controversy with a Socinian led him
to study Greek, that he might read the New Testament in the original. A
dispute with a Jew induced him to obtain a knowledge of Hebrew. In 1767,
his interference in behalf of a West India slave, whose master, then in
London, had whipped him nearly to death, cost him a lawsuit. He must be
beaten, if the master could hold his slave in England. Eminent counsel
told him he must fail, for the right of the master was not invalidated
by bringing his slave to England. Repudiating this advice, Sharpe, with
his usual diligence and bent of mind, devoted himself to the study of
the law, preparatory to his own defense. The "law's delay" gave him
ample time to explore the subject to its foundations. He published a
tract "On the injustice and dangerous tendency of tolerating slavery, or
even of admitting the least claim to property in the persons of men, in
England." His rare authorities and profound reasoning converted to his
views many leading members of the bar. After a delay of two years, the
plaintiff abandoned the case, paying Sharpe heavy costs. While further
prosecuting his legal researches, he had another affair of a similar
kind, in which he was partially successful. By this time, though
comparatively an obscure man, he was better read in the law of slavery,
and the restrictions upon the system in England, than any barrister or
jurist in Westminster Hall. In 1772 came on the hearing, before Lord
Mansfield, in the matter of the negro Somersett, a West India slave, who
claimed his freedom on the ground that his master had brought him into
England. The ablest counsel were employed on both sides; the case was
argued twice or thrice, and was under consideration several months.
Sharpe took deep interest in the issue, frequently conferred with
Somersett's counsel, and wrote in his behalf for the newspapers. At
length, on the 22d of June, 1772, Mansfield, with great reluctance, (for
he leaned to the side of the slaveholder,) pronounced the celebrated
judgment, that slavery, being contrary to natural law, was of so odious
a nature that nothing but positive law could support it, and that every
slave, on touching English soil, became free, and "therefore the man
must be discharged!" This rule has ever since been recognized as law in
all climes where England bears sway, and is so regarded in America and
most of the civilized States of the world. For three-fourths of a
century it has pursued the Evil Spirit of slavery with uplifted weapon,
ready to cleave it to the earth the moment it passed the boundaries of
its own odious and unnatural law; and in our day it stands like the
flaming sword of Paradise, turning every way, to guard the tree of
Liberty. For the early announcement of this far-reaching and
deep-sounding principle, the world is indebted to the labors of one who
commenced his career as a humble London apprentice. Having fought the
good fight of Abolition with Clarkson and Wilberforce, and gained
considerable distinction by his philanthropic deeds and writings,
numbering Sir William Jones among his intimate friends, he died in 1813.
A monument, with suitable devices and inscriptions, was erected to his
memory in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey, to mark the public
sense of his merits.
MR. WILBERFORCE has not been over-estimated, but, in my judgment, he
has been mis-estimated. Entitled to less relative praise for his
Abolition services than is generally bestowed, he is worthy of a higher
position as a statesman and orator than is usually assigned to him. This
common error is readily accounted for. The commanding place he so long
occupied, as the Parliamentary leader in this Reform, rendered him more
conspicuous at home, and especially abroad, than any of his coadjutors,
though no man was more ready than he to acknowledge that his services
were meager, compared with those of some of his less noted colaborers.
So, on the other hand, such is the luster of Mr. Wilberforce's undoubted
achievements in the Abolition cause, that to the public eye they have
thrown into the shade his very superior talents in other and more
general aspects. He would have stood in the front rank of Parliamentary
orators, (and those were the days of Burke, Fox, Pitt, Erskine, Wyndham,
and Sheridan,) had he never thrown a halo round his name by consecrating
his powers to humanity. Thoroughly educated, and furnished with general
information, his eloquence was of a high order--fervid, instructive,
persuasive; his diction classical and elegant; his voice musical and
bland; and though his figure was diminutive, and not graceful, his
countenance was remarkably expressive. He possessed a lively
imagination, a keen sense of the ludicrous, a ready wit, and powers of
sarcasm which Pitt might envy. These latter, however, he kept in
subjection, mainly from his strong religious susceptibilities and kindly
spirit, which impelled him to avoid giving pain, choosing to disarm
personal assailants by winning appeals to their calmer judgments. On one
occasion, after being repeatedly and coarsely alluded to, as "the
honorable and very religious member," he turned upon his antagonist, and
poured upon him a torrent of contempt, sarcasm, and rebuke, which
astonished the House, not more for the ability it displayed, than that
so great a master of indignant declamation should so rarely resort to
its use. These intellectual elements combined with the spotless purity
and winning beauty of his character, to give him great weight in the
House, and contributed not a little to sustain the general policy of Mr.
Pitt, whose supporter he usually was, though he ever maintained a
position of comparative political independence. He had much personal
influence over that minister, whose repeated offers to take office under
his Administration he steadily declined. He retired from Parliament in
1824. His last public appearance was in 1830, when, on motion of his old
friend Clarkson, he took the chair at a large meeting of delegates, in
London, assembled to promote the abolition of slavery in the West
Indies.
MR. PITT'S advocacy of Abolition is now believed to have been
hollow-hearted--a mere trick to gain popular applause in unwonted
quarters, and retain his hold upon Wilberforce. During the twenty years
which this question agitated Parliament and the country, Pitt, with the
exception of two or three, reigned supreme, and never failed to carry
any scheme he set his heart upon. At the wave of his hand, he could have
driven from the House half the members, who steadily voted against
Abolition, whilst with a dash of his pen he could have swept from the
offices of the kingdom every occupant who dared oppose his will on this
measure. By his personal advocacy of it, he lost nothing, and gained
much.
We turn with more pleasure to contemplate for a moment the services of
two very different coadjutors of Wilberforce and Clarkson--James Stephen
and Zachary Macaulay. It has already been said that the more imposing
character of Mr. Wilberforce's services threw into the shade those of
many not less worthy colaborers. Of these, Messrs. Stephen and Macaulay
were among the most eminent.
MR. STEPHEN was a barrister. On being called to the bar, he emigrated to
St. Kitts, and attained such distinction in the colonial courts as to be
called "the Erskine of the West Indies." Impaired health induced his
return to England in 1794, where he urged his way to a respectable
standing in Westminster Hall. Soon after his return, he procured an
introduction to Wilberforce, and immediately entered, with
characteristic zeal, into the great work to which the former had devoted
his powers. He was prepared for this from the fact, that such was his
abhorrence of slavery, that he never owned a slave during his protracted
residence in the West Indies. He subsequently married the sister of Mr.
Wilberforce. He consecrated his vigorous pen to the cause of Abolition,
and contributed much to create that public sentiment which demanded the
abrogation of the traffic. At the solicitation of Mr. Perceval, he
entered Parliament in 1808, where he remained seven or eight years.
Always conscientious in the discharge of his political duties, he
refused to support the administration which followed that of Perceval,
in consequence of their neglect to promote a measure, which he had
anxiously pressed upon them, for the registration of slaves in the West
Indies. He soon after resigned his seat, and devoted himself more
exclusively to the duties of a master in chancery, to which office he
had been appointed in 1811, and which he held twenty years. He was the
means of introducing several reforms in the practice of the court of
chancery, though by so doing he essentially lessened his own emoluments.
As an instance of his disinterestedness, it may be mentioned that he
forbade his clerk to take the ordinary gratuities, and remunerated him
for his loss out of his own pocket to the amount of about L800 a year.
What time he could spare from his official duties was devoted to the
abolition of the slave trade by foreign States, and of slavery in the
West Indies. Besides numerous pamphlets, occasional speeches, and an
extensive correspondence on these subjects, he published an admirable
legal work, entitled, "Slavery of the British West India Colonies
Delineated," the plan of which has apparently been followed by Judge
Stroud, of Philadelphia, in a work of equal ability, on American
slavery. Mr. Stephen descended to his honored grave in 1832, at the
advanced age of 75.
MR. MACAULAY is the father of the brilliant essayist and historian whose
writings are so well known in this country. And it is high praise to say
that, as a writer, he is the worthy progenitor of such a descendant;
for, though his publications fall short in beauty and splendor of those
of his celebrated son, they are equal to his in logical acumen and
argumentative power. Though younger in years than Stephen, Macaulay's
services in the abolition of the slave trade were equal to his, while
those in the cause of West India emancipation far transcended his.
The Life of Wilberforce, published by his sons, in 1838, was thought to
have done injustice to the early labors of Clarkson in the abolition of
the slave trade. An unpleasant controversy at once arose, as to the
relative merits of these philanthropists, and especially in reference to
their agency in promoting the abolition. An anecdote was told to me in
London respecting the matter, which illustrates one of the
idiosyncrasies in the mental constitution of another early and steadfast
Abolitionist--HENRY BROUGHAM--who, though young at the period of the
abolition, had, while traveling on the continent, assisted Wilberforce
by pursuing various inquiries in Holland, Germany, Poland, and other
countries, in regard to the traffic. Some of the particulars of the
story are forgotten, but enough are remembered for the present purpose.
Soon after the appearance of the Life, the friends of Clarkson caused a
book to be prepared, vindicating his services and claims, to which
Brougham agreed to furnish an introduction. The body of the work was in
press before the ex-chancellor, pressed with multifarious labors, had
prepared his paper. The committee having the matter in charge waited
upon him, and stated that the publication was delayed for want of his
introduction; that country booksellers and anti-slavery societies were
impatient to have their orders filled, &c. Brougham told them he had not
written a line of it, but would have it completed by a given day of the
same week. At the appointed time the committee called, and he read the
paper. What was their mortification to find incorporated into the middle
of it a ferocious attack on Daniel O'Connell, the very man upon whom
they were relying to help carry through the Commons the bill then
pending for the abolition of the apprenticeship in the West Indies, and
with whom they had had an interview on the subject that very morning.
Here was a dilemma! They expostulated with Brougham; explained the
ruinous consequences to the cause, of their sanctioning such an attack
on O'Connell; and while they did not wish to interfere with the
controversy between him and O'Connell, assured him that for them to
issue such a publication at that crisis might seal the fate of the
apprenticeship bill--nor could they send out the work without his
introduction, without disappointing the public. After rather an exciting
interview, Brougham dismissed them by peremptorily declaring, "they must
take it as it was, or not at all." They left in despair. The next day,
one of the committee called, to see if something could not be done to
get over the difficulty, when lo, his lordship handed him the paper with
the offensive passage omitted. The secret of the alteration was this:
The night after the first interview, Brougham went down to the House of
Peers, and "pitching into" the debate, castigated some half dozen of the
lords spiritual and temporal to his heart's content, and, having thus
worked off "the slough of his passion," returned home in a calmer mood,
and blotted the obnoxious paragraph from his Introduction.